Evaluating Three and Five Axis Milling Technology Applied to the Mold Manufacturing Process

摘要

Today, cost reductions in five axis milling have allowed the technology to represent an emerging option for small and medium industries, such as die and mold makers. Many scientific papers can be found focusing on technical points, but from the process point of view there is still a lack of knowledge to understand the advantages of applying five axis machining in this industrial segment. Therefore, the current paper aims to address this issue. A geometry workpiece was manufactured twice: once by applying three axis milling techniques and once by applying five axis milling techniques. All processes required to manufacture the mold (workpiece) were investigated, including CAD/CAM, electrical discharge machining (EDM), and milling machining. The times taken in all phases as well as the geometry form errors were assessed. The results show that the CAD/CAM programming took even more time than the machining itself for the five axis case, and the time for tool path simulation was the most representative. EDM was shown to be a bottleneck in this industry, and the five axis technique can be applied successfully in the cases where the EDM process has to be used to machine regions not accessible for a three axis milling machine. The results can help process planners and investment decision makers either use a three or five axis milling technique for this application.